: Not to be rude, but "tent poles" are used for all sorts
: of things other than tents. I simply called them that because I
: was thinking specifically of sections shock-corded together.
: These things have a pretty high tensile strength and, depending
: upon whether you chose fiberglass or aluminum you wouldn't have
: the same "crimping" issues. Like I said, I'd like to
: test this but it probably won't be any time soon.
: FrankP

Actually tent poles are used only for the obvious.

There are poles used for other uses, but they arn't then tent poles, running a shock cord thru tubing doesn't make it a tent pole just because it's often used that way.

All the tensile strength in the world won't compensate for diameter, or lack of it, you can only make tube just so strong with very small diameter, diameter being the variable that effects strength the most after the material strength. It's much easier to use larger diameter thinner wall tubing to get reasonable strength with light weight. Still if the wall thickness is reduced too much it's not very damage resistant, doesn't take much force to dent a tube and then destroy it's strength.

You're not by a long shot the first one that's experimented, or had the thought of doing so, with tubing frameworks in these applications.

Bill H.